A man wanted for drug possession shot himself when deputies went to serve the warrant at his home Monday night.

Deputies went into the home in the 15000 block of Alabama Highway 140 in Buhl around 11 p.m. Monday, said Tuscaloosa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Andy Norris.

The man, 34, fired a shot as a deputy tried to open his bedroom door, he said. The deputies learned later that he killed himself with that shot, after spending two hours trying to force him to exit the room.

“The deputy could see the flash of the weapon as he opened the door. The assumption was that he was shooting at them,” Sheriff Ted Sexton said.

The Tuscaloosa News does not typically report names of people who commit suicide.
Deputies had no reason to believe that anyone else was in the room or was in danger, Sheriff Ted Sexton said.

After the shot was fired, deputies ensured that the man’s parents were out of the house and called for backup. Officers with the Tuscaloosa Police and Northport Police responded and surrounded the home.

“They thought he was still alive at that point,” Sexton said.

Sexton deployed the department’s SWAT team, which took an armored tactical vehicle and police dog to the scene. The department’s helicopter flew overhead and a paramedic was on standby. The operation followed typical law enforcement procedures for serving a warrant on a barricaded suspect who is armed and a possible danger to authorities, he said.

Deputies attempted to contact the man through a public address system before pumping tear gas in the house. They broke windows and used a telescopic television camera to search the rooms while SWAT team members monitored the video feed.

After two hours, deputies entered the bedroom and found the man dead in a closet near a .22-caliber revolver. They believe that he had killed himself when they first entered the house.

The man’s father was charged with obstructing governmental operations because he refused to let deputies enter when they first approached the house and resisted arrest, Norris said. He remained in the Tuscaloosa County Jail Tuesday afternoon.

The man who shot himself had been charged in August with selling three Adderall pills, which contain amphetamine, to someone working with the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force.

“I want to thank the agencies that assisted us in this high risk operation,” Sheriff Ted Sexton said. “The abilities of our law enforcement profession were exemplified by all law enforcement personnel on the scene who came together from different agencies to work as a team.”